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We Apologize For the Inconvenience

Photo by Alfons Morales on Unsplash

(Excerpt from the short story, We Apologize For the Inconvenience.)The sign on the library doors said ‘closed for emergency maintenance’ but no amount of maintenance would solve the problems within. One of the books had eaten a man.Jo and the other librarians stood circled around the offending novel at the end of adult fiction (Section M|N), unsure how best to proceed.They had cleared out the patrons, put up a hasty sign on the doors, and locked themselves in with the monster. Now they all shuffled uneasily in place, unspoken questions floating between them.Could the book strike again? Were they at risk? Was that man still alive? Could he be rescued? Who…would volunteer to rescue the man?The head librarian, an older woman named Deepika, who had lived through her share of unusual encounters in a publicly funded reading space,was the first to clear her throat.This had an immediate effect on the other librarians, who usually looked to her for guidance when dealing with difficult patrons.“Do we have any long implements?” Deepika said. “Perhaps in the custodial closet?”“It’s locked. I think,” said Devon, who knew for a fact that it was. He had memorized every space in which he might have a panic attack in peace. He could feel one very distantly on its way now, likely to arrive as soon as he processed exactly what was happening.“The custodian has the keys but unfortunately, we sent him off on his lunch,” Deepika said. This was, after all, a librarian matter.“What about the master key?” Robert asked. He often asked about the master key, having given it a high ranking in his list of items that granted power over others.Deepika did not acknowledge Robert’s pleading look, instead reaching into her pocket and handing her keys to Claire, a more trustworthy subordinate, in one smooth move.“Try to find a broom, or a mop, or better yet, one of those trash-pickers,” Deepika said, nodding towards the custodial closet.Claire muttered this list under her breath and then disappeared behind the Adult Non-fiction shelves.Now that they seemed to have a plan, Jo returned her gaze to the problem at hand.It was a hardback book, with decorative iridescence and floral motifs, as was normal for a new book trying to be well marketed. Unfortunately, it was also face-down, so that they could only see some vague reviews and a barcode.From Jo’s spot, the spine was also turned away from her and she craned her neck half-heartedly to see if she could catch a glimpse of the title.“Should I- should I read the title?” Eunice said, having caught Jo looking. “Is it…you know…”Eunice paused, embarrassed.“Is it going to eat me if I invoke its name?”Jo internally concluded that this was a reasonable fear given the circumstances and the knowledge that such rules were often used in the type of fiction that the book probably contained.“Memorize the name and the author, and then step back until you feel safe,” Deepika said. “Then you can tell us the name. Will that work?”Eunice nodded, then covered her mouth as she read so she wouldn’t accidentally whisper the title aloud. Once she had the whole thing memorized, she walked backwards in a nervous shuffle until she was at the other end of the row of Section M|N and could feel the wall behind her.“It’s called Hunger! By Gareth Lovewort,” Eunice called down the row, her voice high and reedy.The irony was not lost on the librarians and many of them let out a sigh. Then they all watched the book vigilantly for any sign of movement but the black and silver tome was motionless.Perhaps Mr. Lovewort was just following the trend of one-word titles, but it felt vaguely malicious to Jo in light of what had happened. And what had happened?Jo wasn’t sure. She had been in the far end of K|L and saw a man exit the section. Shortly afterward, there had been a muffled yelp. Jo remembered walking at her briskest pace to see what had happened. In the open space by the ends of K|L and M|N, she had watched the book fall from where it had been floating in the air and then made shocked eye contact with Devon, who was frozen by the return cart and had presumably watched the whole thing happen.Why this book though? And why now?“What if there are more copies?” she whispered aloud, horrified.“Good question,” Deepika said. “We should check before more…unfortunate events happen. Could you search the catalog, Jo?”Jo had half expected to be sent to K|L directly and pushed down the irrational fear that had risen up.“Yeah, of course,” she said.“Be careful,” Eunice yelled from deep in M|N._As soon as she was out of sight from the rest of the librarians, Jo felt her discomfort multiply. While not particularly superstitious, she had never liked the unnerving silence that filled the empty rows when there were no patrons and often walked faster at the end of the day to leave the building before her fear caught up with her.She adopted a semi-brisk pace now, careful to temper her nervous walk so she wouldn't enter blindly into an ambush by book.It wasn’t like she had seen it develop a mouth and swallow the man whole. She just couldn’t stop imagining awful things…the book taking on eldritch elements, too many sharp teeth and the sound of something gnawing on bone.“Lovecraft is near Lovewort,” she said, absentmindedly, and shivered.The circulation desk was by the entrance. There were a few patrons who were attempting to peer through the tinted glass and others still reading the printed sign taped to the door. Most left after a few minutes but Jo felt like she couldn’t stay too long or risk being spotted. She didn’t have it in her to walk outside and spin some sort of broken plumbing story to curious onlookers.There would be a lot of complaints to deal with tomorrow.Well, more than just complaints if they never figured out what to do about the book and its victim.Maybe no one has to know, Jo thought nervously, as she logged into the computer and pulled up the library catalog. She knew it was an awful thought and forced herself to focus on her assigned task.“Lovewort…Lovewort…”There was only one listing and it was for Hunger, of which the library had one copy.Jo felt an immense sense of relief.According to the catalog, the book had been newly acquired, arriving just last week. It had only been published that very year.Jo’s relief was replaced by paranoia. Had they been targeted? Perhaps purposely selected to house a book made exclusively to eat one of their patrons?Who was this Gareth Lovewort anyway? He had a name like an amateur magician and the naming practices of an edgy teen writer.An initial search turned up nothing. Not a single review or advertisement.Jo looked up the publishing company. Surely there had to be some PR there?There wasn't. In fact, there wasn't any information for any other authors or books at all.The website was permanently in a "under maintenance" state, just like they were.There was only one source of information, a deeply buried news article about a local disappearance. One Mr. Fishing of Livform Publishing had mysteriously vanished after a major book signing event, the book launch for Hunger to be exact, and the Livform Publishing headquarters had subsequently been shut down until the police had more leads.With sudden terror, Jo logged out of the computer, afraid to look too deeply into why associated information was missing or nonexistent in case she attracted the attention of whatever entity was erasing everything linked to this book.From her peripheral vision, she spotted the tall man lurking at the door.Jo made to dive under the table but the man began to knock on the glass, his whole body clearly turned towards the circulation desk.She froze in a half squat willing her brain to do more than a fight or flight response.It was probably a patron. Not a hired hitman or something.Jo could deal with unwanted guests. She was trained to provide order and guidance in the library.She simply had to go to the door and tell the man that he had to leave.Jo stood up and cleared her throat once. Twice. Three times. She brushed down her business casual cardigan and walked as calmly as possible to the door.As she got closer, Jo noticed that the man was in uniform. Probably police from the color. Maybe he wasn’t trying to get in the library after all, just here to check in on the closure.Jo unlocked the main doors, opening the left one just enough to peer her head out awkwardly. She didn’t want to seem like she was inviting people in.“Hello,” Jo said. “Can I help you?”“Uh, hello,” said the officer. “I saw that the library is under maintenance.”“Yes,” said Jo, not sure what else to say if he had already read the sign.“I was wondering if I could still check out a book?”Jo’s hopes that the officer was here for non-library business were dashed. On the other hand, he probably wasn’t here about Hunger either.“I’m sorry, sir,” said Jo. “We’ve had a critical problem with the computer systems so I can’t let anyone check anything out.”“Ah. I see,” said the officer, with the air of someone who really did see but wasn’t going to let that stop him. “I’m on my lunch break, you see, and I promised my daughter I would check out the book she needs for her report. She needs to read it by tonight and she can’t find it anywhere else.”Jo could feel her grip on the door weakening and adjusted her hands, causing the whole thing to shift inward. From outside it must have looked like she was stealthily attempting to close the door, because the officer moved to grab at the outer handle before he hastily put his hand back down. Jo glanced at the name embroidered on his uniform. It seemed like Officer B. Rhodes was not going to let her leave.“If you come back later,” Jo said, “I’m sure the situation will be resolved then.”Officer Rhodes did not like this answer. He moved closer to the door.“I don’t get off before the library is closed and I don’t think my daughter should fail her class because the system was down and she couldn’t check out a book,” he said. “If I could even just take pictures of the pages for her, that would be fine with me.”“I’m sorry, sir,” said Jo, in the monotone drone of someone entering full customer service mode. “I’m not allowed to let anyone into the building.”“You’ve called IT, right?” said Officer Rhodes. “They’re allowed in, right? I’m sure letting in one police officer is no different than one technician. You can say I insisted on checking the premises.”Jo hesitated. He didn’t seem like he was going to make this easy.“Look,” said Officer Rhodes, sensing an opening. “I’m just a public worker, same as you. You know how it is, limited break times, long hours.”On a normal day, Jo would have done her best to help a reader in need but today was different. Today, they were hiding a crime, a possible murder, and the last person everyone needed in the building was the police.Maybe she could take him the long way around through the shelves so he didn’t see everyone standing around. Maybe that was a terrible idea and they would all go to jail for manslaughter.She sighed.“It isn’t fair to the other patrons who came and left,” Jo said, making one last effort. “What if they see me letting you in but not them? I could lose my job. You understand. As a fellow public worker. Same as me.”This was apparently the wrong thing to say to Officer Rhodes.He suddenly turned and jogged to the end of the covered entrance and peered around the wall. Then, cheering up considerably, he jogged back to the door where Jo stood, baffled.“No one around,” he said.Jo had nothing to say to that.After a moment of panicked silence, she yanked the door open and hissed at him to be quick about entering.Jo stalked further into the main lobby, hoping Officer Rhodes had followed her to where they were hopefully out of view of everyone inside and out.“Alright,” Jo said, voice low. “What book do you need? You can’t check it out but you can take photos.”Officer Rhodes pulled out his phone and checked his messages.“One second…okay here, ‘The Equinox Gathering by Sara Manavaran.’”Jo almost went over to the circulation desk to look the book up out of habit before catching herself.“We’ll have to find it manually,” she said to the officer. “Can you tell me if it's adult fiction? Non-fiction? Poetry? Young adult or children’s?”Officer Rhodes stared at the message from his daughter.“I don’t know, sorry.”“Maybe you could text your daughter and ask?”Officer Rhodes looked like he was having an epiphany and very slowly drafted a message.“I hope she sees it, she might be in class.”Jo gave him a pained smile. Maybe it was faster to look it up herself.Jo usually kept her phone off until her shift was over but she turned it on now and waited for her browser to load.“How do you spell Manavaran?” she asked, once the library internet had deigned to support her connection.“M-a-n-a-v-a-r-a-n,” said Officer Rhodes. A second later he added, “Oh! She responded. It’s fiction. For adults.”Jo put her phone away in despair. That meant they would have to go to Adult Fiction section M|N which was far too close to where everything had happened. For all she knew, Eunice was still sequestered at the back end of the row, too scared to leave.“Jo!”Jo turned around to see Claire struggling with an odd assortment of tools: two flat mops, one large push broom, two trash pickers, and a third wet mop, still stuck in its wheeled bucketClaire saw Jo’s look and said, “It took a while to figure out how to move everything. Who’s this?”Officer Rhodes, to his credit, took on his role immediately.“I’m Officer Rhodes. I’m responding to a tip from a concerned guest about the problem with the facility.”“Problem?” Claire said, her voice rising sharply. “What problem? I’m sure Jo has told you, we are-”“Yes, she said that the computer system is down,” Officer Rhodes said.“-dealing with some plumbing issues but...nothing else,” Claire finished, then hastily added, “Except the computer system, yes.”Officer Rhodes stared at Claire’s strange assembly of long tools.“There’s puddles,” Claire said. “And might as well sweep while no one’s around.”Jo felt like this was the best opening she was going to get.“Officer Rhodes has requested an interior walkthrough. Since there are...puddles, I’m going to take him through the children’s section, past the YA section, and finally into adult fiction,” Jo said.Claire stared at Jo wide eyed.“Best to get going,” Jo said. “Lots to mop and sweep, hopefully before we get to the affected areas. Oh, and please tell Deepika the one she has is the only copy available.”“Y-yes,” said Claire. She nodded at both of them then scampered off, which, with her burden of tools, was more like an awkward shuffle.Officer Rhodes watched her go.“She’s got real guilty energy,” he said.Jo’s breath hitched.“Bet she was slacking off, hiding somewhere instead of working,” Officer Rhodes said, winking. “Probably wasn’t expcting to run into anybody. Good thing you set her straight!”“Oh yeah,” said Jo. “Good thing.”Jo patted her chest while taking a deep calming breath. Claire was smart and probably had no trouble understanding she was supposed to warn the others about Officer Rhodes’ impending arrival. It was how the others would take it that Jo was worried about. Individually clever, they tended to be exceptionally blind when brainstorming plans together, herself included.“Well, you heard me, we’re going to take the long way so we can sneak by when everyone’s distracted and grab your book.”Officer Rhodes checked his watch.“Forty minutes left...let’s make it as fast as possible,” he said.Jo wondered how slow she could go before he got suspicious."Of course,” she said. “This way."--